Stanley Cup: Colorado Avalanche beat Tampa Bay Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. –

 Nathan MacKinnon couldn’t discover the phrases. Gabriel Landeskog cracked a smile and a joke.

After years of playoff disappointments, the Colorado Avalanche are again atop hockey’s mountain after dethroning the two-time defending champions.

Behind a aim and an help from MacKinnon, the Avalanche received the Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise historical past and first in additional than twenty years by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Sport 6 of the ultimate Sunday evening.

“It is simply been constructing over time,” playoff MVP-winning defenceman Cale Makar mentioned in regards to the Avalanche’s journey. “I have been right here solely three years. A few robust exits within the playoffs. It was simply all main as much as this.”

It is the primary title for the Avs’ core group led by MacKinnon, captain Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen and Makar, and it follows a number of early postseason exits — within the second spherical every of the previous three seasons and the primary spherical in 2018. The 2016-17 workforce was the worst in hockey, ending with simply 48 factors.

“It is laborious to explain,” mentioned MacKinnon, who led the way in which within the clincher by blocking pictures and taking huge hits along with his offensive manufacturing. “Some robust years blended in there, however it’s throughout now. We by no means stopped believing.”

With a mixture of velocity, high-end expertise and the expertise gained from these defeats, Colorado broke by this time — incomes each little bit of the championship by knocking off a deep and gritty workforce that hoisted the Cup the previous two years.

“To beat them might be just a little extra satisfying, to be sincere, as a result of they’re champions,” mentioned veteran ahead Andrew Cogliano, who hoisted the Cup for the primary time at age 35. “They know how you can win. And, finally, when you may beat the champions, you realize you actually earned it.”

Just like the Avalanche totally anticipated, it wasn’t straightforward.

An early turnover by Makar led to a straightforward aim by Steven Stamkos, placing Colorado in a gap and several other extra bumps and bruises adopted. The Avalanche tied it when MacKinnon beat 2021 playoff MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy with a near-perfect shot and went forward on one other huge aim by commerce deadline acquisition Artturi Lehkonen. They locked issues down by holding on to the puck and held Tampa Bay with out a shot on Darcy Kuemper till halfway by the third interval.

When the Lightning lastly did, he was there. Introduced in from Arizona in a commerce final summer time to shore up the game’s most necessary place, Kuemper was strong once more and made his most necessary save with beneath seven minutes left when he slid over to disclaim star Nikita Kucherov.

His teammates completed the job and Colorado improved to 9-1 on the highway this postseason.

Very similar to the Lightning went all in a number of occasions by buying and selling excessive draft picks and prospects to load up for the perfect likelihood to win the Cup, Avalanche common supervisor Joe Sakic was not afraid to ante up in March to amass Lehkonen, defenseman Josh Manson and Cogliano. They turned the right complement to Colorado’s core that had confirmed loads of playoff promise however till now hadn’t produced a championship.

Sakic, who captained Colorado’s first two title-winning groups in 1996 and 2001, used a well-known recipe to get his workforce over the hump. Very similar to Pierre Lacroix, the architect of these Avalanche groups that had a lot success after the group moved to Denver, Sakic prioritized talent, velocity and flexibility.

That velocity overwhelmed each opponent on the way in which to the ultimate, from a gap sweep of Nashville by a hard-fought, six-game sequence towards St. Louis and one other sweep of Edmonton. It was a unique problem towards Tampa Bay, when the Avalanche wanted to soak up counter-punches from the back-to-back champs to shut it out.

Tampa Bay ended up two victories in need of turning into the NHL’s first three-peat champion because the early Nineteen Eighties New York Islanders dynasty.

“It stings simply as a lot because the firs time,” Stamkos mentioned, referring to the Lightning’s loss to Chicago within the 2015 remaining.

Earlier than the sequence, Makar mentioned he and his teammates have been attempting to finish a dynasty and start a legacy. That legacy lastly entails a championship, thanks largely to regular coach Jared Bednar, who in his sixth season f ound a method to focus his workforce on the mission at hand from the beginning of coaching camp. Bednar turned the primary coach to win the Stanley Cup, American Hockey League’s Calder Cup and ECHL’s Kelly Cup — all after that depressing 48-point exhibiting in his first season behind the Colorado bench.

“He caught with it, additionally,” Rantanen mentioned. “He had a troublesome first 12 months within the league, and I did, too. I can not consider we’re right here six years after.”

Bednar received the chess match with Jon Cooper, additionally a Stanley and Calder Cup champion who is taken into account among the finest tacticians within the NHL. The Lightning fell into an 0-2 gap dealing with their stiffest competitors since their run of success started in 2020 after which went down 3-1 earlier than forcing Sport 6.

Requested how different groups may have the ability to copy the Avalanche’s success, Landeskog quipped, “Get a Cale Makar someplace.” Certainly, Makar received the Conn Smythe after main Colorado in scoring with 29 factors in 20 video games.

Accidents that sidelined prime middle Brayden Level and restricted different key contributors proved an excessive amount of towards a stacked opponent. Depth allowed the Avalanche to beat dropping defenseman Samuel Girard to a damaged sternum and end off the Lightning even with standout ahead Andre Burakovsky sidelined by damage and with Valeri Nichushkin hobbling round on an injured proper foot and middle Nazem Kadri enjoying by a damaged proper thumb.

The Avalanche beat the Lightning earlier than attrition might take an excessive amount of of a toll and earlier than the scary risk of dealing with elimination in Sport 7 towards Vasilevskiy. As a substitute, they will return to Denver to have a good time with the Stanley Cup. A parade is predicted on Thursday.

Whereas not as emotional because the previous two years when Stamkos received the trophy, Colorado’s series-ending victory marks one other completion of an NHL season throughout a pandemic — the primary again to 82 video games with a standard playoff format since 2019. It was not with out its stumbles, together with suspending dozens of video games and pulling out of the Olympics. Commissioner Gary Bettman wasn’t even capable of hand the Cup to Landeskog as a result of he examined optimistic for the coronavirus, leaving deputy Invoice Daly to do the honors.

The Avalanche and Lightning handled occasional tough ice enjoying late into June, one thing that ought to not occur once more because the league will get again to its common schedule. When that occurs, Colorado will get the possibility to defend its crown and try to observe Tampa Bay in turning into a perennial Cup contender.

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AP Sports activities Author Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report